


Smile

by WindStainedDreams



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo, The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-it fic, I NEEDED THIS, Implied everyone/everyone - Freeform, Kaz Brekker has a solution for everything, M/M, Mentions of gunshot wounds, Multi, My babies need to have happiness, Spoilers, Spoilers for Crooked Kingdom, because it didn't happen, including that, now with an epilogue of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-17 08:45:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9314093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindStainedDreams/pseuds/WindStainedDreams
Summary: “Have I entered the afterlife or did you really just crack a smile for me, demjin?”





	1. Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was leaving the storm, or was the storm leaving him?

 

 

The white snow was fading, the howling growing distant as the wolves retreated further and further away from him.  He was leaving the storm, or was the storm leaving him?  The wind was cold, but he could no longer feel the chill.  He had been ready to go home…  Matthias groaned, his body throbbing with pain.  His eyes slowly focused on the dark figure above him, and he had to blink more than once to make sure he was seeing clearly. 

 

“Have I entered the afterlife or did you really just crack a smile for me, _demjin_?” he mumbled to the figure, who simply chuckled once before moving awkwardly aside, allowing Nina to press herself against the Fjerdan, sobbing.  Matthias followed the dark figure with his eyes until he could no longer see him without moving. 

 

Matthias wrapped one arm around the Heartrender’s figure, feeling Nina’s familiar contours ground him, and tried to sit up so that he could see all of his friends.  Wylan and Jesper rushed closer, helping him stay upright.  Inej stood and stared, dumbfounded, as Matthias came back to them from the grave.  She had been sure he was dead, watching him stumble back to her and Nina, bleeding, delirious.  Her bronze face was bloodied and streaked with tears.  Matthias had never seen the Wraith so shaken, and he felt a pang in his heart for the kind Suli girl.  Matthias could feel Wylan trembling behind him, breath catching wetly.  Jesper’s fingers were tapping an unsteady rhythm against his shoulder, and Matthias knew the other boys weren’t doing much better.  This crew, these miserable people, his _friends_ , cared enough to mourn him when his own people, his own brothers, would rather see him dead.  They had even tried to kill him more than once.  For a moment on the streets of Ketterdam, Matthias had made his peace, knowing he would very likely die tonight.  It seemed Kaz still had more escapes up his sleeve for Matthias. 

 

Nina suddenly pulled back with a hitched breath and slapped him, which Matthias was expecting.  Then Nina turned around without a word and slapped Kaz Brekker. 

  
Kaz must have also been expecting it, because he simply ducked his head for a moment, idly toying with something flashing in his gloved hand before looking at her and saying “The bullet wound is still very real.”

 

“The poison,” gasped Wylan as he looked from Kaz’s gloved hands to Kuwei, who hovered at the edge of their group, nervously chewing his lips.   

 

Kaz nodded, raising the syringe he was holding into the dim lamplight.  “The _drüskelle_ now use a special poison on their bullets, meant to disable Grisha, probably in an effort to collect them for testing _parem_.  The formula is similar enough to what we used on Kuwei, and I kept a syringe of antidote in case he needed to run before getting to the clinic.  Now that Matthias is no longer under the stasis effects of the toxin, the bullet wound may yet kill him.”  

 

Nina paled, and Matthias felt her clutch tightly at his hand.  “Congratulations, Nina.  You now have the added pleasure of telling Zoya and Genya that there is a traitor among you providing information about the latest Grisha poisons to the Fjerdans.  Hopefully Kuwei is still a secret.”  Kaz was still, grim and unsmiling; and Matthias felt his heart tremble feebly in his chest a moment as they locked eyes once again.

  
  
Matthias shivered violently at the thought of the _drüskelle_ , the Kherguud, the Merchant Council still looking for Kuwei, praying to Djel that they had not lost once again.  His wound ached, vicious ripping pains that made sweat break out on his skin, and he could no longer bite back the groans.  Nina turned to him instantly, and he could tell that she was reaching for the powers she no longer had to try and heal him.  Inej put her hand on Nina’s shoulder, comforting her friend, even as she passed a bandage to Kaz. 

  
  
The dark eyes pierced Matthias as surely as the young boy’s bullet, and Matthias accepted his help to press the bandage to the wound.  For a brief moment, the blond could trace his finger against the skin of Kaz’s wrist, but he held back, hovering before he could touch.  Kaz shifted, tying the bandage tight as Jesper adjusted it at his back, under his coat, and Matthias had to hiss, bracing himself with his arm against the boathouse floor.  The moment between him and Kaz was gone, and Matthias felt a small pang of regret that there could not be more to their parting.

  
  
“We don’t have a lot of time, the boat is ready for you,” Wylan said from behind Matthias’ shoulder where he was still helping prop the giant up.  Colm was waiting next to the boat, wringing his hat in his hands and staring at yet another miracle of madness that his son had gotten involved with.  Matthias felt sorry for the man who had trusted his son and found Jesper desperately in over his head with thieves and murderers and cons instead.

  
  
Matthias gave Inej, Wylan and Jesper the tightest hugs his wound would permit, and shook Kaz Brekker’s hand before following Kuwei into the boat and lying still, trying to keep his wound closed as much as possible.  He gritted his teeth at the thought of having to depend on any Healers among the refugees but knew they were his only chance.  He would not last long.  He steadied his breathing, doing his best to make sure no one would see the rise and fall of his chest unless they looked very closely, more closely than anyone in a plague infested city would _want_ to look at a corpse.  Nina settled in next to him soon after, and Colm joined them as well, draped over their legs in a heap.  Hopefully Nina’s hair hid most of Kuwei’s face as it fell from its pins.  The rest of the Grisha would help hide them as well.  Rotty pushed off, guiding the boat out onto the canal, black hood in place. 

  
“I'll ask Zoya and Genya to heal you as soon as they get in the boat,” whispered Nina, holding his hand and trying to muffle her tears.  Matthias risked a small nod, lips brushing her forehead. He wanted to look back at the boathouse and the Van Eck estate, _Wylan’s_ estate, but it would require too much contortion and he was supposed to be dead.

 

As the corpseboat paddled swiftly down the canals towards freedom, Matthias knew that while it may be a very long time, they would all meet again, even if it was only in the white of the storm.  

 

 

 


	2. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He is almost there. Just a little farther to go and he can rest.

 

 

There is emptiness and ice and snow, and he is alone.  He howls, hoping to hear the cry returned by his brothers, but there is no answer on the wind. 

 

*****

 

He walks, large paws soft on the snow, and he knows he is going somewhere farther than he’s ever been. 

 

*****

 

The snow changes, disappears, until his paws shift rock and dirt beneath him.  He has hunted, eaten, but not much and his body has become lean with hunger.  The scent of prey in the air, sweet and fresh, makes him change his course only slightly.  He will feed and be on his way. 

 

*****

 

The mountains rise before him and he slides among their shadows as he approaches.  It is warmer here than home and he pants as he trots along, large strides eating ground and bringing him ever closer to the peaks where he sees more snow once again.  The stony ground is cold, but the mountains are frozen.  The thought of that deeper chill quickens his steps until he finds himself running with joy and anticipation. 

 

He has encountered none of his brothers, and something stops him from seeking them out when he hears their calls in the distance.  They do not feel as friendly as they once did.  He does not howl back.  He knows that once he is over those mountains, he will not see his brothers again.  The thought does not bother him. 

 

He climbs.

 

*****

 

The mountains offer him cold, but few things to hunt.  He finally catches a deer, eats what he can for a day and a night and leaves the rest for the birds.  Below him stretches a vast plain, cold and empty, with a wind not unlike the one that sings of home, but there is a promise in this one that he has not felt in so very long. 

 

Across the plain he sees more mountains, knows that the ice he will cross is just as cold as what he left behind, but there is something on the other side of those mountains that he must find. 

 

So he walks.

 

*****

 

He had felt exposed on the ice, on the plain, the rolling land nothing compared to the shelter he finds in these mountains.  They were not as tall, not as cold, but he still feels more at home than he had out in the open. 

 

It does not take him as long to cross these mountains.  Although the pull of that whispered promise is getting ever stronger, something slows his steps.  He scents it in the air, sometimes, and shivers.  There are many people now, settlements he has to avoid. 

 

He carries on, careful now to not be seen by anything.  He is still lean, still weak, but fast as ever, a white shadow sliding past in the night. 

 

*****

 

Two large settlements and many small ones are passed before he sees the large city.  It reminds him of what home used to be, shining, white, safe. 

 

He is almost there.  Just a little farther to go and he can rest. 

 

*****

 

It takes time to make it into the white city, but he manages to find a way.  He follows the twisted smell that still calls to him and finds children playing with balls and sticks. 

 

One of the boys sees him and stares.  Even tired, hungry, he is bigger than the boy.  Instead of fleeing, the youth comes to him, extends his hand and lets himself be sniffed. 

 

This is part of the smell that calls to him.  A small voice growls that he should take this hand away from him too, but he stills himself. 

 

The hand strokes his face.  He twitches away with the tiniest of growls.  The boy laughs and starts scratching behind his ears, and he melts.  The boy leads him to the edge of the lake and he drinks, the water cool in the warm sun.  He sits down and the boy carelessly leans against his side as another boy once had.  He finds he is still missing something despite the comfort of the memory. 

 

The little ones come running, petting and climbing, and he is not bothered.  He sleeps. 

 

*****

 

It is not long after meeting the boy that he wakes to loud voices and a girl shouting at his new companion.  He stands, stretches his large paws, yawns wide and sees the flinches of the older Grisha, feels satisfied. 

 

He sniffs the air and starts to walk.  The one-armed boy and his friends follow, curious, but they do not try to stop him, which is new for him.  The girl that had been shouting smelled like the one-armed boy.  Family.  Pack.  He understands protection.  He brushes against them both as he goes to the water’s edge to drink. 

 

While his new companion is nice, he knows he needs more protection than the boy can offer.  He scents the air, walks lazily around the lake and the woods, searches until he finds the glass walls and looks in on a man in purple. 

 

Him.  For now, him. 

 

The rest follow, opening doors for him and leading him down to the workshop where the man in purple barely blinks before pointing to an empty space and letting him sleep. 

 

The others protest, but it seemed he has chosen his allies well, for he is not removed. 

 

*****

 

The trip out to Sturmhond’s – to _King Nikolai’s_ – ship on the corpseboat is something Matthias will never forget, even if he wishes he could.  There had been no Healers among the refugees, and only a set of twin Heartrenders on the _Volkvolny_ to help Genya heal the bullet wound.  They had done a good job, leaving the tiniest trace of a scar, but it had still been one of the most unpleasant moments in his life.  He still shudders to recall the feel of the bullet being slowly pulled from him. 

 

He hopes he stays dead the next time he is shot. 

 

The trip back to Ravka is swift, Zoya and the other Squallers filling the sails and the Tidemakers carrying them to port as fast as their powers allow.  By the third day, Matthias is recovered enough to go above deck, and takes to life at sea as well as he ever has.  Some of the Grisha stare, whispers of _drüskelle_ passing their lips.  When they see how poorly he is without his eyes on the horizon, the fear turns to snickering.  Nina is often by his side, talking to Genya or Zoya, and once, when the Squaller overhears the laughter, she fixes the Grisha with such a stare that Matthias is reminded of the horror stories told of her to the trainees. 

 

He is grateful for their protection, even as he hates it.  When it is Sturmhond that next berates the crew, Matthias is relieved that he is not indebted solely to two thirds of the Grisha Triumvirate. 

 

They make land, and the ride to Os Alta is perhaps even more grueling.  The double-walled city rises before them long before they reach its outer gates, the fields before it still littered with the remains of a large camp, long abandoned. 

 

Genya stops tailoring King Nikolai’s face a few days before they reach the city, and Matthias, Kuwei and Nina follow the King and his Grisha along with the rest of the tired refugees in a slow procession through the gates and into the upper city.  Most of the crew stays behind on the ship, although the twins take up their positions at the rear.  Matthias thinks that he could become friends with Tolya someday, if the Heartrender ever decides to stop glaring mistrustfully.  He finds he cannot blame him.  At least Tamar and Nina seem to have the beginnings of a friendship, and Kuwei has never seemed happier to be able to speak his language and hangs on the giant’s every word. 

 

Instead of making their way to the Grand Palace, the ugly building that sits above the city and shines its gaudy gold and blue colours to blind the people, the small group walks around the grounds of the palace and Nina’s step lightens beside Matthias. 

 

This is her home, one she has not seen in nearly two years, and Matthias squeezes her hand back when her grip tightens as they enter the wooded path that leads to the Little Palace. 

 

_The Little Palace is not so small_ ; he thinks when he first sees the structure.  The next thought is _this is impossible_. 

 

Waiting for their arrival is a man in purple who must be David Kostyk, the Fabrikator of the Grisha Triumvirate.   He is accompanied by a pair of Squallers and two Healers who move to the refugees and help them into the Palace.  But that is not what has stopped the small party that remains; the King and his Grisha frozen in surprise as Kuwei stares dumbfounded. 

 

It takes two long strides for Matthias to break away from the group and collide with the soft white fur flying towards him. 

 

He is on his knees in the dirt before the King of Ravka and the most powerful of the people he had once sworn to destroy, and he does not care that he cannot see them for his tears.  He is vaguely aware that Nina is beside him, laughing and crying in that way she has when she is truly overcome with joy.  Her voice is soft and gentle as she strokes behind the wolf’s ears, lets him smell her hands. 

 

“Hello, Trass.  Have you been keeping out of trouble?”

 

*****

 

Home. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out I got an idea for an epilogue of sorts, and it wouldn't leave me alone, so here it is. I'm sorry about the lack of Kaz/Matthias in this chapter, but it was not meant to be. I hope you've enjoyed the puppylogue! 
> 
> As always feel free to comment here or [ on my Tumblr ](http://tinbramblearts.tumblr.com/) with your thoughts!

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to a request by LazyWriterGirl on tumblr, based on [ this post.](http://tinbramble.tumblr.com/post/155747666803/send-me-a-pairing-and-a-number-and-ill-write-you)
> 
> Okay, so, I am going to take a leap and also I want to push you, so Kaz Brekker/Matthias Helvar, 40. 
> 
> “Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?” 
> 
> Also, new fandom, yay me! Please let me know what you thought, I'm excited to be in such a young fandom. :)


End file.
